Harry takes Dumbledore on a side-along-Apparition back to Hogsmeade. Dumbledore is weak, staggers and his face paler and damper then ever. He sinks to the ground. Harry wants to take him immediately to Madam Pomfrey but Dumbledore says it is Snape he needs.

Rosmerta appears and Harry asks if Dumbledore can stay with her while he goes to Hogwarts to get help. Rosmerta asks him if he hasn't seen it, and then points out the Dark Mark in the sky above Hogwarts, meaning there has been a killing. It had appeared minutes ago. Dumbledore and Harry borrow brooms of Rosmerta, Harry summons them with an ¤ Accio. Dumbledore instructs Rosmerta to alert the Ministry and Harry to put on his Invisibility Cloak.

Approaching the castle, Dumbledore muttering in some strange language, undoing enchantments around the castle. They arrive, the door to the spiral staircase which leads back into the castle is closed.

Dumbledore clutches his chest with his blackened hand and instruct Harry to get Snape. Harry hurries over to the door but when he take the iron ring of the door hears footsteps on the other side. He looks at Dumbledore who gestures him to retreat. The door burst open and someone shouts a ¤ Expelliarmus. Harry goes rigid and immobile, hit by a Freezing Charm. Dumbledore's wand flies in an arc over the edge, Harry understands Dumbledore had wordlessly immobilized him. Out of the doorway steps Draco Malfoy.

Draco sees the second broom and asks who else is there. Dumbledore says nobody and asks if Draco is working alone. Draco says there are Death Eaters inside the school, they are below, they met some of Dumbledore's guard. He came ahead, he has a job to do. Dumbledore replies he should get on with it then. Draco stares at the smiling Dumbledore. Dumbledore says he is not a killer, although he almost killed Katie Bell and Ron in his feeble attempts to kill him, so feeble he wonders if Draco's heart is really in it.

Dumbledore says there are members of the Order below fighting the Death Eaters. He asks Draco how he managed to get the Death Eaters into Hogwarts and Draco explains he had the broken Vanishing Cabinet in which Montague got lost the previous year mended, it is a pair and the other is in Borgin and Burkes. Dumbledore indicates Draco had times he had to be doubting he would succeed and he tried more desperate means like the poisoned mead and the opal necklace, he did know it was Draco, he had Snape watch over Draco. Draco says he is wrong, Snape is a double-agent working for Voldemort. Dumbledore does not agree, he trusts Snape. Rosmerta was their help outside Hogwarts, being put under the Imperius Curse, she gave the necklace to Katie and sent the mead to Slughorn. Draco explains they communicated with enchanted coins, the idea from Hermione and the DA. The Dark Mark was a trap to lure Dumbledore back in a hurry. Someone is dead though, he stepped over someone's body on his way.

More sound from below, there is little time. Dumbledore wants to discuss Draco's options. Dumbledore does not believe Draco really wants to kill him, he would have done it by now. Draco says he has no options, he has to do it or Voldemort will kill his whole family. This is also the reason, Dumbledore says, he has not confronted Draco sooner. Voldemort might have been using Legilimency against Draco. Dumbledore says he can help Draco, he can hide him more completely than he can possibly imagine, the same for his mother and father. Draco says Dumbledore is at his mercy, but Dumbledore says it is the contrary.

More sounds from below, footsteps and four Death Eaters burst out the door. Dumbledore greets them, a brother and sister called Amycus and Alecto. Also there is Fenrir Greyback, Draco however had not known he would come. He threatens to kill Dumbledore but the fourth Death Eater says Draco's got to do it.

More voices from below saying the stairs are blocked and shouting ¤ Reducto. Draco is trembling so bad he can barely aim. Greyback is impatient and moves to do it himself but the fourth Death Eater blasts the Werewolf out of the way.

Snape comes out of the door. Amycus says they have a problem, "the boy doesn't seem able ..." and Dumbledore speaks to Snape saying "Severus ..." in a pleading voice. Snape remains silent, pushes Malfoy out of the way. Snape gazes at Dumbledore, revulsion and hatred on his face. Dumbledore again says "Severus ... please ... ". Snape raises his wand with a ¤ Avada Kedavra a green jet shoots from his wan and hits Dumbledore squarely in the chest. Dumbledore is blasted into the air, for a split second seems to hang suspended beneath the shining skull of the Dark Mark and falls slowly backward like a doll over the battlement and out of sight.